People’s Liberation Army

China has told its service personnel “not to fire the first shot” as Beijing looks to de-escalate tensions with the United States in the South China Sea. Both sides have stepped up their operations in the disputed waters, increasing the risk of incidents that spiral out of control. Still, Beijing does not want to give American hawks the opportunity to escalate things further, sources familiar with the situation told the South China Morning Post. Beijing had ordered pilots and naval officers to exercise restraint in the increasingly frequent stand-offs with US planes and warships, the sources said. Meanwhile, further details emerged about a phone conversation between the two countries’ defens

The latest tensions between China and India have further fueled both countries’ build-up of troops and weapons to assert territorial claims at their disputed border areas. There has been no official confirmation of the numbers of troops each nation has deployed, but reports have suggested that the PLA has sent multiple advanced weapon systems and refitted fighter jets for operation in high altitude areas of the Tibetan plateau. The Indian army, too, has moved several battalions from an infantry division to “operational alert areas” along the frontier, and reinforcement troops have been brought in. Hong Kong-based military expert Liang Guoliang said Beijing had deployed at least nine combine

Chinese President Xi Jinping has told the military that it needs to become more prepared for armed confrontation and improve its ability to carry out military tasks.  On the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, Xi said the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had performed well in helping to contain the Covid-19 outbreak but should explore new ways of training during the pandemic.  “It is necessary to step up preparations for armed combat, to flexibly carry out actual combat military training, and to improve our military’s ability to perform military missions,” he was quoted by the state-run Xinhua news agency as saying.  The comments come as defense ministry spokesm

A Chinese technology firm is testing a new attack drone specifically designed to help ground troops in street-level combat, in the hope that it can sell the unit abroad, reports say. Engineers recently completed a successful air-to-ground test firing exercise for the mini quadcopter named Tianyi, Modern Weaponry reported. The developer, Tianjin Zhongwei Aerospace Data System Technology, said the unmanned aerial vehicle had been designed to carry out both reconnaissance missions and close-range strikes against armored vehicles or individuals in an urban environment. “It is suitable for circumstances that include asymmetric combat, counterterrorism and special forces [operations] and street ba

Beijing has stationed troops in Hong Kong since 1997, after China regained control of the former British colony, but they are rarely seen outside of their barracks. But in their second high-profile appearance on the streets of Hong Kong in 22 years, People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers streamed out of their camps on Saturday to remove roadblocks set up by anti-government protesters. While not military in nature, the exercise served as a gentle warning to activists in the highly autonomous Chinese city who have grown increasingly confrontational in pressing their political demands, said Anthony Wong, a Macau-based military expert. Wearing shorts and holding brooms and buckets, about 50 sol